


Korra Hates Stairs

by LightInside



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Dorks, F/F, Fluff, Stairs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 15:38:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4025401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightInside/pseuds/LightInside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra and Asami are climbing the stairs to Asami's office and Korra refuses to let Asami know that she's winded</p>
            </blockquote>





	Korra Hates Stairs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RenaJay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenaJay/gifts).



> Rena requested this one when I was looking for Korrasami prompts and she's been feeling down and under the weather lately so I wanted to push this out for her cause she's awesome

Korra pointed at the door on the landing they were just arriving at. “And what’s on this one?”

“This one is the R&D floor that’s dedicated to mecha suit optimization,” Asami replied. “The next one focuses on advancement and the one above that is for weaponry, but this one’s mostly just to try to utilize the suits’ limited energy supplies as efficiently as possible so people can get the most of each battery charge.” She knew all of the floors of the remodeled Future Industries Tower, and she was excited that Korra was so interested.

Korra, on the other hand, tried not to groan as Asami rattled off the information. Now that she’d already talked about the next two floors, Korra had no excuse to stop and ask her about them. Which meant she’d have to take the next three flights of stairs without a break.

The elevator in Future Industries Tower was undergoing repairs, so the couple’s trip up to Asami’s office on the 42nd floor was all on foot. Asami didn’t seem to be having any problems at all, but Korra’s legs felt like they were on fire. She was used to running, weightlifting, all kinds of martial arts and bending, but stairs… she’d never done much stair climbing.

They were already up at the 25th floor. Korra was definitely winded, but they still had over 15 floors to go and Asami didn’t look like she’d even broken a sweat. There was no way Korra was going to look weak in front of her girlfriend. She was the Avatar, for spirits’ sake! So she grit her teeth and started onto the next flight. The break for her question about the floors had barely lasted thirty seconds, and she felt like Asami was starting to guess that something was up since she’d asked at every floor since 10. She needed to come up with a different excuse to stop.

That was when she didn’t step quite high enough for the next stair and stumbled forward. She managed to break her fall… with her bare forearms, right into the sharp corners of the stone steps. “Korra! Are you alright?” Asami quickly bounced back down the couple of steps and crouched to level with her girlfriend.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Korra assured her, pushing herself up. “Just, thinking about the mecha suits and missed the step I guess.” She grinned sheepishly. “No big deal.”

“Don’t be silly, look.” Asami grabbed her arm and Korra turned over to sit on a step. “You’re bleeding.” Sure enough, a bright red line across Korra’s right forearm was slowly trickling blood down toward her elbow.

“Asami, please. I had worse than this, like, three days ago in sparring practice.”

“Hold on, I’ll get you some water.” Before Korra could even respond, Asami’d dashed down the stairs to the floor below them and darted through the door. Korra sat there looking down the steps and shook her head. Silly woman.

Still, this was a good enough excuse to rest a bit. She reached down and rubbed at her calves and thighs, trying to loosen up the muscles. Then she just sat back, elbows on the stair behind her with her head rolled back, and looked up at the stairs above them. The flights ran back and forth the whole way up, and looking up the center shaft was really discouraging. She closed her eyes and took long, steady breaths, trying to slow her heart rate.

“Korra?” She jumped at the sound of Asami’s voice. She hadn’t heard the door to the stairwell open again. “Are you okay?” The question was decidedly different than it had been a minute earlier after she’d tripped.

Korra sat up and grinned, trying not to give anything away. “Yeah! Just, uh, daydreaming.”

“Yeah?” Asami handed her the cup of water she’d brought and Korra set it down on the step next to her, bending the water out and onto her cut. Asami took her other hand and sat down beside her. “What was your dream about?”

Korra sputtered. “Uh… living underwater?”

Asami gave her a long, strange look. They held eye contact for what felt like ages, before Asami finally smiled. “Sounds neat!” Korra sighed and visibly slumped as the tension eased.

They sat there in silence for a moment longer as Korra worked on her cut before Asami spoke again. “You know, if you need to take a break, I don’t mind. It’s not like we’re in any hurry.” The water Korra was bending slipped right out of her grasp and onto her pants.

“Wh-what? What gave you that idea? I’m doing great! I mean, come on, I’m the Avatar.”

Asami squeezed her hand a little tighter. “I can feel your pulse, Korra. Your heart’s racing and you’ve been breathing harder than usual for the last 5 floors. I take these stairs at least once a day just for the exercise, so I’m used to it. Stairs use totally different muscles than most of the stuff you do. Not having those particular muscles developed enough for this is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Korra pulled her hand out of Asami’s and leaned forward, elbows on her knees, as she laughed at herself. “Almighty Avatar, defeated by too many stairs.”

Asami put her hand on Korra’s arm. “And the Avatar is still human. The Avatar could have airbent herself up all these stairs in no time without breaking a sweat and carried me with her. But _Korra_ chose to walk up over 40 flights of stairs and completely wear herself out just to be with me while I did it. And I like that better than the Avatar carrying me up.” Korra smiled back at her girlfriend. “Now come on. Let’s finish.”

The smile immediately turned into a pout. “But stairs are the worst!” She flopped back onto the stairs again and spread her arms across them. “Carry me?”

Asami folded her arms and gave Korra a look that said “Seriously?”

“Please?”

Asami rolled her eyes, but smiled and got up, moving a few steps down and sitting down on a stair herself. “Climb on, Tiger.” Korra grinned and wrapped her arms and legs around her girlfriend. Asami was more worn out than Korra by the time she made it to her office.


End file.
